You will no doubt have seen the recent media coverage of the discovery of horsemeat in some pre-prepared beef products nationally. This letter is to tell you what has happened so far locally and how beef on school meal menus in your school is to be managed from now on.

The Results of Testing Beef Burgers

Taylor Shaw, who supply school meals in your child’s school inSheffield, have an ethos of using freshly prepared foods, cooked on site wherever possible. The only pre-prepared products that have been used in the service are beef burgers and sausages and these have been supplied by the food distributor Brakes. The Food Standards Agency has instructed all suppliers and manufacturers to the industry to test all their beef products. This has now been done.

The results have been received and I am very happy to confirm that our supply of beef burgers to Sheffield schools have been found to be free of any horse DNA .

This applies to Secondary and Primary sectors and also any halal burgers that were being used in the service prior to the start of the problems in January.

There is no evidence according to the Food Standards Agency that pork products need to be investigated and are therefore not subject to any testing so pork sausages will remain on the menus. Dishes such as meatballs, lasagne and pies are all home made.

What Happens Now

The Council and Taylor Shaw are still concerned about how this situation has come about nationally and also that it will be some time before the Food Standards Agency reports on why beef products have been sold containing horsemeat and horse DNA. So Taylor Shaw has decided not to re-introduce the beef burgers from Brakes, but to make their own for the time being by the catering teams using fresh beef mince from their local butcher, Underwoods Meats Ltd. They are also sorting out a supply of beef burgers made up by Underwoods on their behalf, again using the best quality meat, in order to get the volumes needed to satisfy school menus. Any home made beef burger will comply to Taylor Shaw’s recipe and it will meet the requirement of the contract standard in terms of fat and meat content.

Our Quality Standard

As parents and carers, you will expect the Council and its suppliers to have high standards. We absolutely will not compromise on this and the health and wellbeing of our children and young people is paramount at all times. Our school meals service is one area where the most robust checks are in place to ensure we serve high quality food and that your child receives the food you believe they should be.

The meat supply used in your schools’ service meets the highest rating possible by British Retail Consortium – Grade A – and all the meat is Red Tractor accredited. This means that it can be traced back to the original supplier of the meat. The School Food Service is in receipt of all documentation that shows this quality standard and this is updated annually as part of the contract between Taylor Shaw and the Council. We therefore make sure that we have a visible and robust trail of where the meat has come from. This also includes halal meat.

Trading Standards Testing

The School Food Service checks the raw materials used in the service by an independent testing process every year through our Trading Standards Department. This test always includes meat in all its forms plus fish and milk, and includes a check for any pork DNA in halal meat. All our fresh meat – diced and minced – has been found to fully meet the School Catering Contract standard when the latest test was completed in November 2012.

I hope that this letter has gone some way to reassure you that both ourselves and Taylor Shaw have the highest standards in place regarding all aspects of the food we serve your children. It is something we will never compromise on. If you have any comments or queries regarding this letter, do not hesitate to get in touch with us using our telephone numbers above or our direct email address schoolfoodservice@sheffield.gov.uk

We are delighted at the response to the Mother’s Day lunch event that will take place on Thursday 14th March. In order to accommodate everyone in the dining room, we will be holding 2 sittings:

Parents/carers of FS2, Y1 and Y2 (key stage 1) children will have their lunch from 11.30 am.

Parents/Carers of Y3, Y4, Y5 and Y6 (key stage 2) children should arrive at school at 12.15pm when hopefully the dining room will be less busy. If this poses a problem for anyone who has children in two different key stages, we will ensure that the older child has their lunch at the earlier sitting.

All adults should report to the main entrance at their allotted time. We will bring the children to the main hall to meet you.

Following a request from the children in Y2, we have arranged a friendly football match away against Dore Primary School on the above date.

Depending on the number of children interested, we may be able to form two teams of children to enable more games to take place. The games will be played as matches, but obviously the main emphasis will be on fun, participation and cooperation.

We aim to play the games on Dore’s KS2 field, but if the weather is not good enough for this, we will play on the yard. Children will need football boots (not essential) shinpads, football socks, and suitable trainers. I will provide Totley Primary School football kits (although these are in sizes more suitable for older children!)

I will organise some practice sessions for any children who return permission slips, and will probably ask some Y6s to help coach at lunchtimes.

On the day of the match itself, the children involved will come out of class to get ready at 3pm. I would appreciate some help with getting the children dressed, especially as we may have to roll up shorts and shirts to make them fit! We will then

Organise the children into cars to drive up to Dore as soon as school has finished.

Please sign and return the slip if you would like your child to take part and indicate if you can help with transport. Your support at the event would be much appreciated!

We would like to bring to your attention a forthcoming world-wide event, Earth Hour 2013. “‘Earth Hour is the single, largest, symbolic mass participation event in the world, borne out of a hope that we could mobilise people to take action on ‘climate change’.”

This year Earth Hour will be held on Saturday, 23 March at 8.30 pm when 7,001 cities and towns across 152 countries will switch off their lights as a massive show of concern for the environment.

I would like you to take part with your children on the Saturday by finding an hour during the day when you turn off the television, computer, CD player or Ipad and do something else! You may want to make it a whole-day which could be a challenge. We will be talking to our children in class about what they can do instead, perhaps playing out, den building, playing board games with the family, playing imaginary games or making music!

We will be holding an assembly about Earth Hour on Monday, 25 March when the children can talk about what they have been upto.

Today was the day that our favourite book characters came to life and came to school! A super effort was was made by children and staff alike as we dressed up to celebrate our love of reading and join in with other school children around the globe. Traditional tales featured strongly with characters such as the 3 Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. Roald Dahl was also a hit, with characters from ‘The BFG’ and ‘Matilda’, for example. Some chose modern stories as their inspiration, with Harry Potter, the witch from ‘Room on the Broom’ and David Walliams’ ‘Billionaire Boy’, all making appearances. It must be said that there were also many Wallies at school (no change there then!) with Mrs Booth being a prime example!

Other staff outfits included a memorable Sherlock Holmes from Mr B, a hairy footed Bilbo Baggins from Mrs Bridgwater, while Mr Stewart donned his size 11 heels to become the fearsome Miss Trunchbull!!

Do you have any old costumes, fancy dress outfits or Christmas performance clothing that you no longer need? If so I would be very grateful if you could send them into school so that we can use them in the future.

I am aware that we have quite a number of dressing up days and events throughout the year and that some children wear clothing that has been purchased especially for the day. Some of these outfits can be quite expensive (as my dressing up account testifies) and with this in mind we would be willing to pay a small amount to buy them from you.

If you do have a clear out or find that you have some outfits or costumes that you may be willing to donate, please send them into school for my attention so that they can be used in the future.

After some of remuneration for the school budget this year, we have extra funding and we have decided to use this to purchase a heart defibrillator. The defibrillator will be stored in the school office and has the facility to be used on both adults and children. Key school staff will be receiving intensive training on the use of the defibrillator and I feel it is important to make you aware of the new resource. I will also be writing to the library and doctor’s surgery to make them aware.

Defibrillators can improve a person’s chances of survival following cardiac arrest by up to 70% and I believe we are one of the first schools in the country to purchase the resource. I sincerely hope that the defibrillator will be a waste of money and that we never need to use it. However I am sure you will agree it is reassuring that, should such an instance occur where someone goes into cardiac arrest, we are as well equipped as possible to deal with the situation.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding the defibrillator.

Do you need any bedding plants or hanging baskets? Ordering them is easy with the PTA!

To make your order, just fill in the form which can be collected from the office or downloaded here. Please return the completed order form, together with your payment, to the school office by Friday 22ndMarch 2013. You can pay by cash or a cheque made out to Totley Primary School PTA. (Please remember to add the PTA).

The plants will be ready for collection, at the school, on Thursday 9th May 2013 between 3pm and 5pm, so keep a note of the date.

Plants can not be bought on the day, because we order the plants from a nursery. So to avoid disappointment, fill in a form now!

The full catalogue of plants is available by clicking on this link: Catalogue

Feel free to ask friends, relatives or colleagues to order some plants as well.

For this years end of year celebration all the infant classes will be going to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park on Tuesday 4th June. In the morning each class will be given a guided tour of the park by an artist. We will be exploring the sculptures, focussing on animals, looking closely at the themes and materials used by the different artists. In the afternoon we will be taking part in a workshop. Here we will be given the opportunity to use our creative imaginations producing some large sculptures of our own, inspired by the works we have spotted during our tour. I’m sure this will be an exciting opportunity for our children and should be a creative experience to remember!

We will leave school at 8.30 am and aim to arrive back at school at approx 3.30 pm. Your child will require a packed lunch, a drink in an unbreakable container (no fizzy drinks please) and a suitable bag to carry these in.

The cost of the trip is £12.50 which covers the cost of the coach, our workshop and insurance. If it helps, we are happy to receive payments by instalments, please get in touch with us.